News from around the world

A former religious bookstore owner who sexually abused a 15-year-old boy over the course of several years wants to waive his right to be present for sentencing, his attorney said Thursday.

Brad R. Gale was supposed to be sentenced in state court on two counts of aggravated sex abuse of a child, one count of sodomy on a child and one count of forcible sodomy before beginning a federal prison term for possessing pornographic images of his victim. But in July, the U.S. Marshal’s Service unexpectedly moved Gale to a federal prison in North Carolina where he began serving 15 years.

At a review hearing Thursday in 8th District Court, defense attorney Herb Gillespie said Gale, 50, has expressed a willingness to be sentenced without returning to Utah to appear in court. Gillespie said he intends to send Gale an affidavit confirming his desire to waive his right to be present at sentencing.

Duchesne County Attorney Stephen Foote told 8th District Judge John R. Anderson that his office is willing to proceed to sentencing without Gale’s presence.

Anderson noted that his clerk has reported a great deal of public interest in why Gale had not yet been sentenced.

Gale’s arrest in July 2006 on 33 felonies related to sexual abuse of a teenage boy shocked residents of Duchesne County. A well-established businessman, Gale owned bookstores in Roosevelt and Vernal that sold office supplies and titles by LDS authors. He also served on the Roosevelt City Planning and Zoning Board.

The abuse came to light after a Provo man contacted the state Division of Child and Family Services to report that Gale had offered to let him have sex with a teenage boy in 2005. DCFS turned the case over to police who met with Gale and obtained a confession.

County prosecutors dismissed 25 of the 33 counts against Gale in September 2006 when a federal grand jury indicted him on child pornography charges. Gale later pleaded guilty to four of the remaining eight state charges against him.

In the past, Foote has told the Deseret Morning News that the cost — in time, money and manpower — to return Gale to Utah was excessive for the purpose of a brief sentencing hearing. Aside from the options of holding the hearing without Gale or having him returned to Utah, there was also discussion of sentencing Gale on the state charges once his federal prison term ended.

A sentencing hearing in 8th District Court has now been scheduled for April 10.